Where: Hong Kong, China.
When: 23 hours in January 2014.
Why: I had a very long transfer through Hong Kong (23 hours), so that I could finally go explore and play with this great Asian city.
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Map and geography
OK, for people who know Hong Kong – my explanation of the areas of the city might seem to be overly obvious, but I didn’t know much about the layout of the city before I went there and I feel that some information on the different areas of the territory could be useful for first time visitors.
Hong Kong is made up of a number of islands and a peninsular on the mainland.
The heart of Hong Kong is Hong Kong Island. This is where the famous skyscrapers and Victoria Peak are. HK Island is south of the mainland peninsular.
Opposite the skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island is Kowloon Peninsula. This is the mainland. The Star Ferry runs across the harbour between Hong Kong and Kowloon. Kowloon is where the cruise ships terminate, where you go to view HK Island from afar and where the more atmospheric Chinese markets are. The waterfront area, which the Star Ferry runs to, is called Tsim Sha Tsui.
North of Kowloon, further inland and closer to the Chinese border, is the New Territories area.
I think officially, Lantau Island is also part of the New Territories. Lantau Island is a dramatic mountainous island. This is where the airport is, where the Big Buddha and the cable cars are, and here there are some nice small resort towns and beaches too. Lantau Island is to the west of Hong Kong island.
There are many other islands that you can go visit, but the above seem to be the four key areas of the city.
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Intro
I actually first visited Hong Kong in 2007. Well, when I say visited what I actually mean is transited through the airport on the way to New Zealand.
When I was there in 2007, I thought Hong Kong looked really cool. I loved all the small islands with hidden resorts we flew over. I loved the dramatic mountains of Lantau Island. I was itching to explore further, but sadly I had to fly to New Zealand, so I vowed to come back.
Rather naughtily, I have been counting Hong Kong on my list of countries visited ever since then, even though I did not officially ‘enter’ Hong Kong, so I was determined to go back and to see it properly.
For my Korean winter vacation in 2014, I decided to go home to the UK to see my friends and family, but as I also wanted to see somewhere new I flew to the UK via Hong Kong and came back via Tokyo. I had a 23 hour transfer in HK and 9 hours in Tokyo.
One day in a place is not enough time to really get to know somewhere, but it does give you the chance to visit the highlights. In summer 2013, I visited Shanghai on a fifteen hour transfer and this gave me time to see the Bund, the financial district, Tai Chi and the Maglev. In Autumn 2013, Jeff and I visited Osaka for 22 hours and though it was a quick-trip, we still had time for shopping and sushi.
Hong Kong is very easy to navigate. There is a wealth of clear information online and on the ground and there is a good transport system so that you can easily visit all of the key sites. I did some research and planned my trip before I went, so I wouldn’t waste time messing about. I managed to find bus and ferry times and prices, opening times, directions etc. online; then I emailed all of the trip info to my phone so I could have it with me on the ground.
And I had a brilliant day! I went on the cable car to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island, caught a bus to the resort of Mui Wo then a ferry to Hong Kong Island. I walked around the pier area before getting a bus to the tram. I went up Victoria Peak on the peak tram, and then I walked back down through the city. Finally I ended the day with a trip on the Star Ferry to Kowloon to see all of the HK skyscrapers light up. I was going to watch the 8p.m. lazer show, but by this time I was really tired, so I headed back to the airport early, ready for my flight. I did miss some highlights of Hong Kong, such as food, drink and shopping, but I think I saw most of the key sights of the city.
I really like HK. I found it to be a warm, friendly city. People seemed to be relaxed and happy; there was lots to see and do and it seemed to be a fun place. In January, the weather was spring-like and warm and nice. I was surprised at how rural so much of Hong Kong is. Even though it is famous for its city and skyscrapers, there are huge areas of wildlife on Lantau Island and on Hong Kong Island too. Also, Hong Kong seems to have some gorgeous golden sandy beaches: it could almost be a place for a beach holiday.
Hong Kong looks like it would be a great place to live: there’s lots going on, beautiful islands to explore, good transport and great food and drink. There’s a cool mix of cultures: you can find Chinese restaurants, British pubs, tapas, Malay food, Korean food etc.
It’s also a good place for a visit and there is enough here to occupy you for a few days or just for 23 hours. I feel like in my 23 hours I got a good look at the city, but I would like to go back to explore further.
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Getting there
I first visited Hong Kong in 2007, when I flew to New Zealand via Hong Kong, with Cathay Pacific.
The second time I went to Hong Kong was on my journey from Busan, South Korea to the UK. This time I flew to HK with Korean Air and then to the UK with Virgin Atlantic. I found the flights through skyscanner and booked them through Omega Flight Stores.
Flights to Hong Kong from the UK tend to be between £400 and £700.
Hong Kong airport is a huge, modern airport with lots of facilities. It is on Lantau Island, but is very well connected to the city (see the getting around section for more info). I had to queue for quite a while to get in to Hong Kong, but departure was really quick and efficient.
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Getting around
Hong Kong airport is really well connected to the city. The main link to Kowloon and Hong Kong Island is the Airport Express Train. This runs to Central, a station near the waterfront on Hong Kong Island. It also stops at Kowloon station.
The airport express train runs approximately every ten to fifteen minutes. Journey time between Central and the airport is 25 minutes and it costs HK$100/£8 ish.
The last train is at 00.45 (as of Feb 2014). My flight landed at 00.30, so I wasn’t able to get the train into the city as I was too late. This is why I decided to stay at the airport. I could have got a night bus into the city, but I didn’t want to be wandering around Hong Kong in the middle of the night on my own, though I’m sure it would have been fine.
You can find a comprehensive list of transport service from the airport to the city, including bus services, on the To and From section of the Hong Kong airport website.
I caught a bus (S1) which went direct from the airport to the NP360 cable car station. The S1 runs a circular route via the airport, the cable car station and Tung Chung Station, which is a key station on the metro line. The buses run about once every five minutes and it cost me HK$3.5/20p. Incidentally, my bus was a double decker, so I sat at the upstairs front seats to ‘drive’ the bus.
I caught the cable car from the cable car station to Po Lin monastery (see the what I did section for more info). There is a large bus terminus at Po Lin monastery and it has toilets and great info signs, which tell you the bus price and timetable.
I took a bus 2 from the Po Lin monastery to Mui Wo. The journey took about 40 minutes and we passed through some really dramatic mountain scenery and through some cute, isolated, quiet Hong Kong villages. It was nice to see this other side of Hong Kong.
The bus ticket cost $24.50 (about £2) on a Sunday. You can find bus times for all the bus services on Lantau Island at www.newlantaobus.com.
Mui Wo is a resort on the far side of Lantau Island. I caught a ferry from Mui Wo to Central Pier 6, on Hong Kong Island. Central Pier is the key terminal for ferries in Hong Kong. There were fast ferries and slow ferries on the Mui Wo-Central route. The slow ferry took 50 minutes and cost $14.50/£1. The fast ferry took 35 minutes and cost $28.40/£2. I happened to get the slow ferry as that was the next ferry that was departing. It was a nice comfortable ferry and a fun journey. I sat outside with the wind blowing through my hair. We went past islands and huge ships unloading goods from all over the world. We sailed along the north side of Hong Kong Island too. It was fun and intersting and so uniquely Hong Kong.
You can view the ferry times and prices on the First Ferry website.
Once on Hong Kong Island, I caught the Peak Tram shuttle bus No. 15C at Central, by Pier 8. The bus runs from the piers to the tram about every twenty minutes and it took ten minutes to get to the tram. It cost me HK$4.20/30p. the bus I was on didn’t give change.
The Peak Tram is one of the key tourist attractions in Hong Kong. It runs from Central Hong Kong to the top of Victoria Peak. There’s more about this below in the What I Did section. The tram runs every ten to fifteen minutes and cost $40/£3 for a return ticket. www.thepeak.com.hk.
I walked down Victoria Peak after my visit to the top. There were well signposted walking tracks on the peak, and once I got back into the city there were good sign posts for key places. I made my way to the Mid-Levels Escalators, which are a really cool, unique transport option. The escalators are for commuters and they run from Central up the peak. The escalators run down in the morning (6am to 10am), and then up later on (10am to midnight). There are steps alongside the escalators, so even if you have to walk, you can use this quick thoroughfare through the city as a quick way to get about. Sadly for my poor feet, the escalators were running up whilst I was heading down, but I still followed them down through the city.
I have read that if you use your octopus card on the escalators, then you get a HK$2 discount on your next MTR journey. Otherwise, they are free. There are twenty escalators in total and it takes about twenty minutes to do the whole journey. You can read more about the Mid-Level escalators on their Wikipedia page.
After this I caught the iconic Star Ferry over to Kowloon. The Star Ferry runs from Pier 6 in Central (on HK Island) to the Tsim Sha Tsui water front area on Kowloon. The ferries run pretty much constantly from 6.30am to 11.30p.m. The trip took about 10 minutes and cost $2.20/20p. I bought my ticket in the machine at the pier. www.starferry.com.hk.
Finally, I caught the Airport Express from Central to the Airport. There’s more information about this above. The Central Station is underneath IFC shopping mall, which smells very nice.
Useful websites for travel in Hong Kong include the MTR website, the Discover Hong Kong website transport pages and the Airport transport pages.
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What I did on my transfer
Before I went to Hong Kong I looked at the guide books, online top 10 lists and spoke to my boyfriend who had already stayed there, to get an idea of what to do – and I came up with this itinerary…
NP360 Cable Car
The NP360 cable car runs from near to the airport to the Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island. It’s a really cool cable car that runs for 5.2km, up and over lakes and mountains. It even goes around bends. The journey to the monastery took 25 whole minutes.
The cable car journey was really cool as there were amazing views of the airport, the ocean and the mountains of Lantau Island. The hills here are rocky and rugged and there were waterfalls and streams and trails below us. I enjoyed waving to the walkers. The footpath looked (from above) like it could be a good fun hike and not too hard.
I was in a normal cable car with six people. It cost me $105/£8.25 for a standard single. Crystal cabins, which are cable cars with glass floors, were also available but these cost a little more.
There was a cable car station with snacks and toilets at each end.
The cable car was only ten minutes from the airport. Bus S1 ran from the airport to the cable car station every five minutes and cost $3.5/20.
Top tip: if you do go on the cable car, take a warm layer as the cars are slightly open and it can get a bit cold high up in the air.
Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery
The Tian Tan Buddha is a huge bronze Buddha, who sits on a hill on Lantau Island. As Buddha’s go, he’s not that old (he was completed in 1993). However, he is extremely large and very cool.
When you come out of the cable car station, you come out into Ngong Pin ‘village’, which is actually just a bunch of tourist shops, facilities and eateries. It’s very touristy and cheesy but I quite liked it and I had a fun half an hour pottering around the shops whilst waiting for my bus (the bus station is next to the ‘village’).
I walked through the village and under the temple gateway, and then I climbed up to the Tian Tan Buddha, who sits at the top of 268 steps.
The Buddha is very big and very cool. He sits up on a series of platforms and there are some other lady deva statues on the platform. The Buddha is located in a gorgeous setting: high up in the cradle of the mountains, overlooking the monastery. There are wonderful views down to the sea from the Buddha and it is so quiet and rural, that it is hard to believe that you are still in the populous province of Hong Kong.
You can go into the area underneath the Buddha, where there are exhibits about the history of the Buddha and some very old carvings. Most importantly though, you can see a reliquary containing remains from the cremation of the Buddha. You have to pay to go into this section of the Buddha, but if you buy a monastery meal ticket (see below for more info) then entrance inside the Buddha is free.
After walking back down the steps, I made my way to the monastery for my lunch. You can buy a meal ticket to eat at the monastery or there is a small vegetarian snack store where you can buy food. I bought a general meal ticket, which cost me $88 (about £6). This was for the set lunch (soup, rice, tea, two dishes (one with meat) and spring rolls. The food was okay but not amazing, although the spring rolls were delicious. The food was served in a large dining hall to the left of the monastery and I was sat at a table with another lone traveller, who didn’t want to speak to me, though I tried to be friendly. So we sat in silence, drinking our green tea and trying not to get too many spring roll crumbs on the table, whilst avoiding each other’s eyes. It was a bit strange.
The rest of the monastery is pretty, though it was being renovated when I was there. As far as I could tell, there is only a small interior area which you can visit, with some cool demon statues. Most of the religious worship for the visitors seemed to take place outside of the temple, where there were large sand pits filled with incense sticks, and people making their venerations.
The monastery is set in nice grounds and I enjoyed just wandering around in the winter-sunshine. In total, I spent about an hour and a half at the Buddha, the monastery and eating lunch, and half an hour pottering about waiting for my bus.
Entrance to the monastery is free.
Mui Wo
Mui Wo is a nice beach resort on the far side of Lantau Island. I only went here to catch a ferry to Hong Kong Island, but whilst I was waiting I had a potter around the ferry port/bus station area, where there were lots of stalls and a McDonalds.
The bus journey from Ngong Pin to Mui Wo was stunning. The scenery on Lantau Island is really gorgeous and dramatic: there are craggy mountains and cliffs, sweeping down to the sea. The bus clung to the mountain side on hairpin bends, then travelled through pretty woods and forests, where people were hiking and biking, and through lots of pretty little villages. The sun was shining, I was listening to music and having fun. It was all very yum.
Bus 2 goes from Ngong Pin to Mui Wo. It took about 40 minutes and cost me $24.50. You can view the timetable at www.newlantaobus.com.
Ferry trip to Hong Kong Island
There are fast ferries and slow ferries that run from Mui Wo to Hong Kong Island. The slow ferry takes 50 minutes and costs $14.50/£1. The fast ferry takes 35 minutes and costs $28.40/£2. I happened to get the slow ferry as that was the next ferry that was departing.
It was a nice comfortable ferry and a fun journey. The boat had two decks and some plastic seats and toilets. From what I remember, they encouraged us to sit down for the journey, but didn’t seem to mind if we got up and walked about.
I sat outside on the top deck, with the wind blowing through my hair. We went along the north coast of Lantau Island and past some smaller islands. We past huge ships, with boat cranes next to them, unloading goods from all over the world. We then sailed along the north side of Hong Kong Island, and we watched a helicopter fly right over us and then land in the centre of the city. The sun was shining, the boat was fast and exhilarating. It was fun and it helped blow some of the cobwebs out of sleep-deprived brain.
You can view the ferry times and prices on the First Ferry website.
We came into the Central Pier area, which is the main hub for ferries in Hong Kong. This is where you catch the Star Ferry over to Kowloon. The upper levels of the piers have many cafes and shops, and it’s an interesting place to people watch.
Peak tram
The Peak Tram is a 120 year old tram that goes up Victoria Peak. It’s probably the most popular tourist attraction in Hong Kong and so gets very busy (I had to queue for an hour on the Sunday), but it is an iconic thing to do and the views are amazing.
To get to the tram I caught the shuttle bus that departs from next to Pier 8 (HK$4.20/30p).
We were dropped off next to the tram station entrance (which is also the entrance to Madame Tussauds), then I saw the terrible queue, which stretched up and over the hill and back again. I was tired and I was being indecisive, so I decided that standing in a queue for an hour or so wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, if I got to go on this iconic tourist attraction. The weather was pretty nice and the queue moved quite quickly, so I didn’t mind waiting too much. The only thing that annoyed me is that people from the far east tend to have different ideas about personal space and the couple behind me were pressed up right against my back (seriously, I had to put my bag behind me to create some space from the lady), even though there was loads of room.
Anyhow, once I got to the front of the queue there were exhibits and information about the tram and then they put us into groups to go onto the platform.
The tram was pretty full but as I was the last one on I got to stand by the door and so got good views. The tram goes up a really steep hill, past sky scrapers and parks, through woods and wild areas. The views were great. At some points, we were at such a steep angle that I did worry about falling over and had to balance myself on the wall.
The journey to the top took about ten minutes.
The tram station at the top of the peak is in the Peak Tower building. I emerged from the tram station into a mall of souvenir stalls and shops. The Peak Tower is a pretty building which had great views over Hong Kong, but I got really annoyed with the crowds pushing into me here and I couldn’t find an exit for ages.
At the top of the Peak Tower building is Sky Terrace 428. This is a viewing platform over Hong Kong. You have to pay to go here. I’m sure the views are fantastic but I didn’t pay as you can get great views from the free lower floors.
Outside the Peak Tower there are a couple of malls and loads of restaurants. You can walk up to the peak of the peak and there are great views of the other side of Hong Kong Island.
For the low price, I think a trip on the tram is well worth it, but at peak times (no pun intended) it does get busy and the crowds can be a pain.
A return ticket on the tram cost me $40/£3 return. The tram plus Sky pass was $75/£5.
Walked back down
Up to now, I had stuck pretty closely to my planned itinerary but this is where I deviated from the plan. I was tired and dehydrated and I was longing for some space, for some peace and some light exercise to wake me up and stretch me out; so I walked back down Victoria Peak.
I had no map and no idea how to get back to Central but there seemed to be a lot of walkways and I could sort of see where I was heading for. There was a footpath which ran down the side of the tram tracks and I followed this. This first took me to a lower tram station and then into the parks of the peak. It was lovely walking down the hill through the woods, with birds singing and small streams. It was quite steep though and as I didn’t stretch afterwards then flew for twelve hours, my leg muscles ached for days! Imagine if I’d walked up it!
Anyway, once I got to the Mid-Levels area I decided to head for the Mid-Levels escalators. I did get a little lost and had to follow some random walkways, but eventually I found the escalators. Sadly for me they were running up the hill by this time but I was able to follow the steps that run alongside them back down to Central. It was an interesting walk and there were a few nice looking bars and restaurants on the steps side. I think it took me about an hour to get from the top back to the bottom.
Star Ferry
Like Sydney and Istanbul, ferries form an integral part of the transport network in Hong Kong; and perhaps the most famous ferry of them all is the Star Ferry which runs from Pier 6 on Hong Kong Island over to Kowloon on the peninsular.
The ferries run pretty much constantly from early in the morning to about 11.30 at night. They only cost $2.20/20p, and the journey takes about ten minutes.
This area of Hong Kong is very pretty, with skyscrapers and lights and crowds and boats and people. I was there at sunset and I enjoyed watching all of the lights come on in the towers.
Kowloon and the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront area
So my plan had been to head over to Kowloon for dinner and then to watch the harbour light show at eight p.m. The Symphony of Lights show is a light and lazer show which takes place at eight p.m., every night. This is where the skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island light up and lazers shine off them and stuff. It’s supposed to be really cool. The best place to watch the light show is from the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront area.
By the time I got to Kowloon (about seven, I was really tired and when I get tired I get indecisive and start to procrastinate. I looked for somewhere to eat in the harbour front area but couldn’t find anywhere that I wanted to eat. I wandered into Harbour City, which is a huge mall, but everywhere in there just seemed to be too expensive and not what I was looking for.
I had a little walk along the waterfront, had a look at the famous clock tower from the old station, and took loads of photos of the Hong Kong skyline and that was it really.
I realised how tired I was and I decided that for me it wasn’t worth waiting an hour for the light show. Also, after walking down the peak I was tired and my feet were aching (I had done a lot for one day). So, I caught the Star Ferry back to Central, brought a nice sarnie from a Deli and got the train back to the airport ready for my night flight back to the UK.
All in all, it was a most excellent day, and hopefully I will transfer through Hong Kong again some time so I can see some of the places and things that I missed.
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What I didn’t do on my transfer
Shopping
Hong Kong is a mercantile and trading city – so where better to shop? Apparently, shopping in Hong Kong is great, thanks to the prevalence of cheap Chinese goods and products flooding in from all around the world.
The only shopping I saw was the IFC shopping mall, above Central Station, and Harbour City (the biggest shopping mall in Hong Kong), which is next to the cruise ship terminal in Kowloon. Both of these malls were filled with very high end shopping and luxury goods. The IFC shopping mall smelled really nice.
Discover Hong Kong has a great shopping guide, with information on the different shopping areas, malls and markets.
Lonely Planet has a great article about the best places for shopping in Hong Kong for various goods, and some of the scams that you should look out for.
Go Hong Kong has information about the eight best markets in HK. After reading this article, I really wish I’d made it to Mongkok Ladies Market, partly because of the funny name but also as this is also where they sell clothes (and not just for ladies, despite the name). Mongkok (busy corner in Cantonese) is in Kowloon, a few roads over from Nathan Road.
Eating
In 2011, Jeff went to Hong Kong for a weekend, mostly just to eat. Partly, this is because Jeff likes to eat, but also because Hong Kong is a food mecca.
As it’s an ex-British colony, a current Chinese city and one of the key-trading cities of the world, you can find all sorts of cuisine in Hong Kong. Jeff was mostly looking for English breakfasts, Sunday lunches and good beer, which at the time was hard to find in Far East Asia.
For me, I didn’t actually find anywhere to sit down and eat as I was too busy running around. I did find a great deli though. It was such a treat to find stuffed olives, good deli meats and hummus, all of which were pretty hard to find in Korea.
As with any Asian city, it’s well worth trying the street food. Go for the ones with the biggest queues of locals, as they know what’s good.
The Guardian has a great article on the top 10 places to eat on a budget in the city.
Another great source of information on good, cheap places to eat is Hong Kong Time Out Cheap Eats guide 2013.
Sky scrapers: The International Commerce Centre (ICC) is the seventh highest building in the world. It is in Kowloon. You can go to the sky100 observation deck, which is on the 100th floor. Standard tickets cost $168 (about £12). www.sky100.com.hk.
Tramways: I went on the old iconic tram up the Peak but there are other trams which run along the north coast of Hong Kong island. These form an integral part of the transport network but are a pretty and fun way to travel around the island too. The fare is $2.3(about 20p) per journey. www.hktramways.com.
Oceans Park is a zoo, theme park and sea world: www.oceanpark.com.hk.
Disneyland: www.hongkongdisneyland.com.
Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sing Temple is a gorgeous Taoist, Buddhist and Confucianism temple. It is in Kowloon: www.siksikyuen.org.hk.
Another cool temple to visit is Tin Hau Temple at Lam Tsuen, near to the Chinese border. Here they have the wishing trees, where people throw oranges with wishes tied to them, into the trees.
Happy Valley Racing: www.happyvalleyracecourse.com.
Walled villages: Hong Kong has villages, and some of them have walls and are 400 to 500 years old. Kat Hing Wai and Shui Tau Tsuen are both near to the Kam Tin road bus stop. Find out more at the Discover Hong Kong website.
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Where I stayed
Regal Airport Hotel
My flight got in to Hong Kong International Airport at 12.30 a.m. The train to the city stops running at 12.45am. I could have got a night bus into the city centre, but as I had never been to Hong Kong before, I didn’t want to risk trying to navigate the city on my own at 2.30 in the morning. Also, I wanted to maximize my time in Hong Kong (as I had so little of it) and so I booked myself a room at the Regal Hotel at the airport.
Although most of the time I am a cheap backpacker, there are times when I think it is worth paying extra just to have somewhere. This was one of those times.
Because it is built on an island, and there is very little land around it, there are only three airport hotels at Hong Kong airport. The cheapest of these was the Regal Airport Hotel.
The Regal Airport Hotel is connected directly to the arrivals hall, so you don’t even have to go outside to get there. It’s a very large, businessy, impersonal hotel, but one with pretty good standards. It has an impressive lobby, shops and a swimming pool (which I sadly didn’t use as I didn’t have time).
My room was nice and big, the bed was really comfy and I had a good seven hours there. My only bugbear was that my room had no mini-bar and I would have loved to have had a non-coffee or tea drink. Otherwise, it was all good.
I paid £90 for the room for one night. Yes, it was a lot but it stopped me being exhausted the next day, they looked after my bags so I could run around the city unencumbered and it was better than sleeping on a bench in the airport.
I booked the hotel through booking.com.
www.regalhotel.com/regal-airport-hotel
Where Jeff Stayed
In 2011, Jeff did a last minute trip to Hong Kong on his air miles (and I mean last minute: he literally booked it then went to the airport). He messaged me a link to the wikipedia page for the building he was staying in – as the building is very famous and is infamous for having fires (eek).
Jeffski stayed in a hostel in Chungking Mansions: four huge buildings that contains many shops, businesses, homes, hotels and hostels, factories, schools – everything. Apparently they are slightly dodgy but okay. In fact, their apparent dodginess has turned them into a tourist attraction in their own right. People come here for the cheap arcades and cheap curries (Jeff recommends Wakas Mess).
Apparently there are lots of lifts up to different areas, and as this is the place that many people on a budget stay, there are lots of travel agents and touts around too.
Jeff can’t remember which of the many hostels he stayed in, but he says they are all pretty much the same here.
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Useful links
As it is one of the great cities of the world, there is a wealth of information out there on Hong Kong. Some of the most useful websites I have found are:
www.fodors.com/world/asia/china/hong-kong
www.frommers.com/destinations/hong-kong
www.lonelyplanet.com/china/hong-kong
Many magazines and newspapers have informative city guides to Hong Kong, including the Guardian, the Telegraph and National Geographic. Time Out Hong Kong is a funky listings magazines for the city which contains information on what’s going on in the city, as well as information on where to eat, drink, shop, play and sleep.
Hostelworld has a useful print out and keep budget guide to the city. These are good guides for cheaper eats and attractions.
Disclaimer
Please note, some, if not much of this information may not be correct, or may be out of date. All these articles show is how we found these places when we visited and what we personally thought of each place. Where possible I will include links to site which will contain more up-to-date info. All of this is our own work and any opinion expressed is that of the author only.
All photos copyright of J Clemo-Halpenny. If you would like to copy or reproduce any of these images, please email me to ask permission.
What I did on my Holiday 